My application letter to become a senior prefect at my old school. Censored for anomity and to help me sleep at night.
Dear Mr. [censored],
I am writing in response to your request for applications for the position of senior prefect.
However, I can think of very few reasons why you might want to choose me as one. While I could make up a list, such as “I have had numerous opportunities to earn respect and lead a team in school newspaper meetings”, or “As a boarder, taking preps has given me plenty of opportunity to correct minor misdemeanours”, or maybe even “My years of rowing have made me realise that you cannot hope to direct a team without showing that you are prepared to lead by example”, I could not do so without giving you this warning: I am in no way suitable to be a senior prefect.
Unfortunately, this is true. I find the idea of facing lots of people that are eyeing me up, working out whether this is going to be a strict prep time or a ‘messing around’ prep time, horrible and for this reason am always apprehensive around the days when I have to take [censored]’s prep duty. My lack of confidence always makes me an easy target for people to push the limits of what they are allowed to do.
This makes “Why do I want to become a senior prefect” an obvious question. Again, I could make an answer that involves “giving something back to the community”, or “an insatiable desire to make the school a better place (and here I’d probably add “than it already is” to put you in a good mood)”. However, again I have to be honest and say that it’s for the tie. Seeing as no newspaper ties seem to be coming my way, and I’m desperate for something that makes me look less… new (and I am not planning to buy a house tie without doing anything to earn it, nor can I see the merit in buying a sixth form tie when I do not have to wear school uniform), then becoming a senior prefect seems like a way into the realm of tie heaven.
Oh, all right. There is another, more decent reason. Having been brought up in a boarding house, where as a third former I lived in constant fear of ‘beatings’ and sixth formers decided that they had the right to make juniors get them toast, I am now determined that there should be an alternative. Whether or not the school approves of this tradition, whether or not we have progressed from the days of Roald Dahl’s youth, I hope that I have gone some way in [censored] to change this situation. As a prefect, instead of striving towards a school where everybody behaves impeccably and does exactly what they are told I would do everything I could to show that respect can be gained by earning it; by showing that you are worthy of respect and by taking an interest in people.
I understand that this has not been an ideal application letter. However, if you feel that you can take the risk of allowing me to become a senior prefect, you can be sure that I will do everything I can to achieve a system that works as above, based on earned respect.
Yours sincerely,
[maximile]
I wasn’t chosen to become a senior prefect. I actually wanted to be.
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